St. John's University Athletics
Barnes Arico Announces Addition To Staff And Promotion of Tartamella
5/28/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
May 28, 2008
QUEENS, N.Y. - St. John's head women's basketball coach Kim Barnes Arico announced today that Joe Tartamella has been elevated to associate head coach of the Red Storm, and Danny Hughes will join the staff as an assistant coach.
"I am really excited to name Joe my associate head coach and Danny an assistant," said Barnes Arico. "I think they are two phenomenal people and outstanding basketball coaches that will help continue to take our program forward. I think our program is going in the right direction and Joe and Danny will take it even further along."
"Joe Tartamella is one of the finest up-and-coming coaches in the business," said Associate Vice President for Athletics Kathy Meehan. "I think his energy and work ethic provides us with an opportunity to continue to move St. John's in a positive direction and into the national scene.
"Danny and his breadth of experience both on the men's and the women's side brings a total new element to our staff. I think his experience complements the staff and will allow us to progress in a very tough, competitive environment that the BIG EAST Conference provides."
Tartamella was elevated to his new position after serving as an assistant coach for the past three seasons. His responsibilities at St. John's include recruiting, post player development, game-planning and scouting. As the team's recruiting coordinator, he has consistently brought in top-rated talent for the Red Storm, as the 2007 class was ranked in the top 50 by Blue Star Report and All-Star Girls Report, and the 2008 recruiting class was ranked No. 28 by All-Star Girls Report.
During Tartamella's five-year career with St. John's -- two of which were spent as a graduate assistant -- he has been an integral part in helping Barnes Arico turn around the program and lead it to new success. St. John's has advanced to the BIG EAST Tournament every season during Tartamella's tenure, in addition to earning the program's first NCAA Tournament berth in more than 17 years during the 2005-06 campaign and advancing to the Women's National Invitation Tournament Quarterfinals in 2007-08.
In addition, Tartamella has coached five All-BIG EAST players, four All-Met selections and has enjoyed a national Top 25 ranking during his time at St. John's.
From 2004-05, Tartamella served as an assistant coach at SUNY Maritime College where his responsibilities included recruiting, developing and implementing strategies and game plans, and overseeing the strength and conditioning programs. He also served as the assistant director of career services.
"Joe has been with us since the beginning and he has really grown and showed what his potential is going to be," said Barnes Arico. "I think he is going to be an outstanding head coach one day, and I think this is just another step forward in his development and his progress towards being a head coach. He has really developed in all areas for us. He has done a tremendous job recruiting for us, but has also done a great job developing players on the court"
Hughes comes to St. John' s from the University of Houston, where he spent the past season as the interim head coach of the Cougars and the prior two seasons as an assistant coach. His responsibilities have included serving as the recruiting coordinator, while overseeing compliance, fundraising, practice and game preparation, as well as scouting reports.
During the 2007-08 campaign, he took over the helm of the program after head coach Joe Curl took a leave of absence for health reasons. Under his leadership, the Cougars snapped a 16-game road losing streak with its first win over Texas Tech since 1985, won eight-consecutive Conference USA games - the most since 2003-04 - and earned a first round bye in the C-USA Tournament. Four players were honored by the league for their achievements during the season, all of whom were recruited by Hughes.
Prior to his stint at Houston, he spent five years (2000-05) at Trinity Valley Community College in Athens, Texas, serving as the associate men's basketball head coach. Hughes oversaw the day-to-day operations of the program and handled all recruiting duties along with academic progress of players during the season. During his tenure, the team reached the Region XIV Tournament three times and earned numerous conference and region honors.
From 1992-2000, Hughes was the athletic director and head basketball coach at Cross Roads High where he posted a record of 123-89 and became the first inductee into the school's athletic hall of fame. After graduating from Texas Christian University in 1990 with a bachelor's degree is physical education, he was a graduate assistant at Sam Houston State from 1990-91 and Trinity Valley Community College from 1991-92.
"I am really happy that we were able to get Danny here to St. John's," Barnes Arico said. "He is a great hire. He is experienced, he is a great recruiter, he is a great on-the-floor coach, and he is just going to bring us another dimension that we don't have. He has national ties and he has tremendous experience at the junior college level."
